On Grammar, Guns and Class War | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

On Grammar, Guns and Class War

Notes on grammar from previous letters.

Sirs,

I feel the need to respond to some letters from the last issue. I applauded Mr. Gerard's efforts to preserve the grammatical integrity of the English language, but must point out to him the error of his ways. I don't imagine he consulted Mr. Webster before he wrote to you, or he would have found that the plural form of medium is not media, but mediums. Media, as used to refer collectively to news producing entities, is, ironically, a singular noun, which results in constant grammatical errors by people who think it should be obviously plural and so mistakenly use the plural verb form in conjunction with it, which is highly annoying to some (like me). Shame on the Source for allowing Mr. Gerard to get away unchallenged for his criticism of your lack of grammatical prowess.

Regarding the letter by Mr. Tihista, I would say "right on, (write on?), dude." The August 22 issue of Time magazine, in a cover story titled "The Decline & Fall of Europe (And Maybe the West)," points out that at least 30 percent of the income in the U.K. goes to the top five percent of earners, and in this great nation 33 percent of the bucks go to the top five percent. And the goons that want the honor of becoming the next president keep suggesting such solutions to the economy as cutting capital gains taxes, flat rate taxes, etc., so the system can keep perpetuating itself and the rich can keep right on accumulating the rest of that miniscule wealth they don't already have.

Warren Buffet, one of the world's wealthiest men, announced recently that he thinks the government needs to raise taxes for the wealthy, as a means of getting out of this economic mess. The only problem with that sage advice is that it will never happen, as long as the government is controlled lock, stock and barrel by the corporations and the wealthy. Unfortunately, human nature is such that the more people have, the more they want, and helping out those less fortunate than them in their time of need has never been high on the priority list. Or doing something for the good of the country. Even the major news networks are discussing the disparity of wealth in this nation and how it could be at least mollified by making the corporations pay their fair share of the tax burden.

Americans should be rioting in the streets like their British counterparts over the ludicrous bank bailout and other idiotic policies. The argument for giving billions of dollars away to the banks and corporations was that it would allow the banks to make loans to people who needed it to save their homes, yadayadayada, ad nauseam. The upshot of the bailout was that it was a blatant redistribution of wealth upward from the middle class to the rich. The year after the bailout, banks and other corporations reported record profits, while homeowners reported record numbers of foreclosures. Loans to the people who needed them were nowhere to be found, as the banks and corporations had their bucks stashed in places where it was earning them a nice fat profit and CEOs were getting even bigger bonuses. The economy would have been much better served by distributing a fair share of the bailout money to those on the low end of the food chain, to be used for saving their homes and other purchases that would have helped the economy.

Nietsche was spot on when he said "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Those who control the bulk of the world's wealth don't just want more wealth; they want total control over anyone lower down on the socioeconomic totem pole. One of the saddest things about the forthcoming anniversary of 9/11, in my humble opinion, is that the vast majority of Americans still don't have the foggiest grasp on what really occurred that day, or why it occurred, any more than they have the foggiest grasp on what occurred at Roswell or with JFK and RFK. And that is truly sad, for many reasons.

I have never been a big fan of guns or other weapons and do not own a firearm at present. But the events of the last few years have led me to conclude that if the American people ever agree to let the government (insert the rich) take their weapons away, it will be all over.

- Anonymous

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